Carthage College wins ONE Campus’ ‘Power Project’ challenge

ONE Campus Challenge 3, The Power Project came to a close this week, capping off four weeks of raising awareness and taking action against energy poverty on campuses across America. Nearly 7 out of 10 people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to reliable electricity, but a bill in Congress could help make a change and lift 50 million people in Africa out of poverty.

ONE Campus chapters got creative and hosted a myriad of events and cool campaigns on their campuses. Students asked professors to lend them the first 10 to 15 minutes of their classes on campus to talk about the issue in a “Lights Out” presentation. A few campuses even hosted their school’s member of Congress on campus to discuss this important problem and the opportunity we have to change it. There were also Power Project “coffeehouses,” “Lights Out Facebook” campaigns, photo petitions, art installations, candlelit study sessions, and advocacy-themed dance parties, just to name a few.

ONE Campus members alwaysseem to deliver—because what they were able to accomplish in four short weeks is nothing short of incredible. During Challenge 3 alone, ONE Campus members hosted nearly 100 “Lights Out” classroom presentations, collected 1,668 handwritten letters to their elected officials, sent out 743 personalized tweets to their US representatives, and rounded up 414 petition signatures.

Without further ado, we’re excited to announce the winners for Challenge #3:

First Place: ONE at Carthage College

While dozens of schools brought their A-game for Challenge 3, ONE at Carthage College blew this one out of the water. They used extreme chalking, glow sticks and photo petitions to make their “Energy Dance” a hit, and thought outside the box with their “Lights Out” classroom presentations (some of their presentations were even done in French!).

They partnered with Greek life on campus to spread the word and generate advocacy actions, hosted a “Lights Out” event in which students powered down their devices and studied or played games without electricity, collected hundreds of handwritten letters to their school’s representative and senators, and dropped off their handwritten letters in person to two Congressional offices.

They even hosted one of Senator Tammy Baldwin’s staff members on campus and met with her to discuss our opportunity to bring electricity to millions of people for the first time in Sub-Saharan Africa. Wow.

Second Place: ONE at University of Nebraska, Lincoln

UNL sparked action on their campus with their “Candlelight Acoustic Night” chock-full of food, live music and advocacy. UNL ONE members then got together with Congressman Fortenberry’s staff to discuss the importance of addressing energy poverty and ask him to co-sponsor the Electrify Africa Act.

Third Place: ONE at Texas Christian University

ONE at TCU spent hours tabling and presenting to classrooms on campus, and sent a remarkable 200 handwritten letters to their members of Congress.

Congratulations to all of the ONE Campus chapters who campaigned tirelessly during Challenge 3! It’s thanks to ONE members like you that the Electrify Africa Act has gained so much momentum in recent months.

Say congrats to these ONE Campus Challenge 3 winners!

Hungry for more? Stay tuned for a full recap of highlights from ONE Campus Challenge Season 7 later this week.

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